my Tennessee life

Between moving and Christmas, I ran out of time! I stayed super busy through Christmas with local and online orders, and it seems I’m just now catching up! It’s been long enough that I’m not sure what I posted and what I didn’t. Most everything else really isn’t finished enough for an “after” photo, but I will show smaller projects as I can.

One thing I worked really hard on – in close quarters – was the pantry in the kitchen. The way some shelves come out to the facing and some are half shelves, it made it interesting to maneuver through for painting purposes. Some of the wood was not attached, though, so that helped the process!

Before, covered in wallpaper (this was before I purchased the house):

The wallpaper was a bit tricky but I got it (I had removed some of the shelves but remembered to take the picture before I started scraping the peeling paint):

It’s painted now! All clean and pretty white….ready for shelf lining, painting the door and changing the door knob:

The shelf liner was like finding a needle in a haystack…I wanted the red and white gingham check….it just reminded me of a picnic table cloth my family had growing up. Of course, there was only one roll and I needed wayyyy more than that for the entire kitchen. Did I mention that shelf liner rolls in large quantities is a small fortune? Yes, yes it is! This photo isn’t the greatest but hopefully you can tell how it looks:

The outside with the fresh paint and door knob, (again not a great photo as it’s night here and that’s the best I could do with my phone tonight):

The paint I used on the walls is actually a Disney color called Mickey’s Shadow and is a light color with a gray tone to it and I LOVE it next to the bright white trim. The doorknob is a satin nickel, not sure how well that’s showing up in the photo.

I would show you the inside of the pantry, but I’ll wait until my organizing is finished in there. The pantry, though, is WONDERFUL! I’ve always wanted one!

It’s getting there!!! Just yesterday the washer and dryer were installed, so the laundry/bathroom is finally ready enough to take a photo to show y’all! The only thing that’s still not ready in here is the shower but since the other bathroom is fully functional, the shower is no rush and will wait until next year.

Just a reminder of the before:

And after the wallpapered paneling came down:

First let me show you the before and after of the closet and panel for the water heater:

The flooring of this was very poor and I believe would have been an open door for bugs and such…I very much DON’T want that, so I had that reworked and as you can see, the drainage spout for the water heater was below the lip of the cabinet and couldn’t be drained. This would have been a huge problem when it eventually needs to be replaced. Now, it’s built up and has a floor to rest on:

The doors to the top part were removed and it’s now open shelving, though the water heater is hidden behind the door. I make make a cute curtain to go over the top section and will show that later when I have it ready.

Another big change in here is the transition of the old fuse box which I’ll also show later when I have it all labeled and such.

The grout was white but stained pinkish probably from cleaners and such, but I stained and sealed the grout to a brown. Here’s how that turned out:

The house really doesn’t have a good broom closet so I bought this nifty organizer from the local Wal-Mart cleaning section and it’s working nicely and I adore the roman shade I found at Lowe’s. (you can see a hint of the closet I mentioned just behind the door that goes into the room):

The main bathroom is a bit confusing to me in my new house. While it would be the one guests would go to, it is also the one that seems to be the master bathroom as it has a large whirlpool tub in it. I’d rather there be a nice normal tub/shower combo in here but I’m trying to work with what I have. This room is full of brass and that will be changed but first, I want to change up the cabinetry. Here’s a look at the builder grade Honey Oak cabinets when I bought the house:

I found a “fix” for transforming them into a dark espresso type cabinet, which I thought would look really good in here. Let me tell you, it’s a little scary to consider doing this to your cabinetry for the first time. I’d read enough successful stories on it that I decided to jump in head first and do it! I used the General Finishes Java gel stain since I’d heard that is the only kind that truly works. The first coat had me wondering if this would ever work, even though I’d read that everyone else felt the same when they saw that first coat, too! Here’s the horror pictures:

But, the second coats of stain really made me breathe more steadily again:

And the finished cabinetry after the third coat, touch-ups and the polyurethane coats:

The hardware and hinges were all brass and I did paint all of those a nice nickel color. The faucets, door knob and light fixtures in here will be nickel later, too, but those photos will come later as those things aren’t done as of yet. BUT, here’s how the finished cabinetry looks with the painted hardware:

Again, please ignore the walls, faucets and carpet. I am SO LOVING the transformation and am very glad I did it! You never know until you try! :)

My new living room is ready! The carpet, pad and old foam pad that was glued down to the hardwood was removed, the wall heater was removed, the wallpaper and was removed, the front door was replaced (more on that later), the walls/trim were painted, the floors were sanded, stained and sealed, AND a new ceiling fixture was installed where there had never been one in the past.

Remember the living room before?

The new ceiling fan (walls were still unpainted here):

This is how the floor looked after the carpet, pad and glued pad (old foam carpet?) was removed:

Because of the stains, I needed to use a darker tone to help blend everything so I used a dark walnut on there even though I really would have liked a lighter stain. You can see the stains in this photo better and also how the color looked;

And a full view photo when I had all the stain on. I did put it on with a cloth…I should have listened to my Daddy and wore knee pads by the way!! But the good thing about doing it the way I did was that I able to control the stain and blending in with the stains on the floor…it worked!

But it’s just so much darker than I wanted it to be. Thankfully though, I know a true MAGICIAN when it comes to floors! I’m fortunate to have a friend who is a floor finishing expert. Mrs. Doris Richardson is THE BEST at what she does! Mrs. Doris took one look at them and knew what to do. She mixed another stain with it, did some treatments on it of some sort (that’s where the magic happened??) and the end result was a richer yet somehow lighter tone….and it’s gorgeous!

Can you see those beautiful tones? Mrs. Doris sure did a GREAT job! If you are in this area, please contact me if you find yourself in the need of her services and I’m happy to give you her number. She definitely does NOT disappoint!!!!

I’m so happy with how this room has turned out!! I painted the walls Antique White and the trim Gloss Bright White. I’m excited about it being ready and am happy to show you all the end results (the wall heater sheet rock was in process here but everything else was complete) :

Bet y’all were beginning to think I was only going to show you the demo of my house, didn’t you? Well I kind of had a deal with my oldest nephew that I wouldn’t post any “after” pictures until he’d seen it. And, he wanted me to be near finished before he looked at it. He had seen the “before” in person and last night, he saw the “current”. He couldn’t believe it! BUT what that means is that now I can post pictures. :) Bear in mind, there is no furniture in the house yet but you’ll see the (mostly) finished room.

This post is going to be the Master Bedroom. Here’s the before of the ceiling and ceiling fan:

I didn’t take a photo of the before and after of the closet but this during photo can tell you the change of the older yellow paint to the clean white paint:

Check out the after photo of the ceiling and ceiling fan…I painted the brass portions of the ceiling fan black.

For the Master Bedroom walls, I wanted a darker tone. Being self-employed, I sometimes find myself up very late working. We artist types have to follow the creativity whenever it strikes! I used a pre-mixed color of Glidden paint called Warm Caramel and am really happy with how it turned out. It’s very striking against the white gloss trim paint I used, too. Here’s an after:

I’ll have more photos later on that don’t have my step stool spotlighted but it gives you an idea of what’s happened in here. The old wall heater in here is gone and the carpet has been cleaned. I changed the door knobs from brass to silver (not done yet when this photo was taken). The only things I won’t be doing right now that I’ve planned to do is remove the mirrored closet doors with the brass trim and paint the brass a different color and replace the old door with a new interior door. My shop will be getting very busy soon so I’m running out of time! :)

Hey Y'all!
Thank you for taking the time to visit! This blog started with my art but has become so much more than that! And, I love to hear from YOU, too!
Please stop by and visit anytime. The door is always open :)
xoxoxoxo
Rhonda